SAN ANTONIO – New monarch butterfly conservation license plates will be available to motorists starting Monday.
The plates will cost $30 a year, with $22 benefiting various programs and efforts of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
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“The monarch butterfly is a species that is beautiful and iconic in that it is one of nature’s great migration stories,” said TPWD’s Wildlife Diversity Program Director John Davis. “This species migrates through Texas from Mexico in the spring making its way to the northern extremes of the U.S. and into Canada, then reverses that feat in the fall to overwinter in Mexico.”
The TPWD license plate program has raised roughly $10 million for wildlife and habitat conservation in Texas over the past 20 years, according to TWPD officials.
Davis said the monarch migration is in jeopardy due to steep population declines in the last decade.
“By adding the monarch to our family of plates, we hope to increase support for this beautiful migration event and through our conservation efforts, brighten the future for this, and many other species,” said Davis.
The monarch butterfly plate joins 10 other TPWD conservation plates which include horned lizard, largemouth bass, hummingbird, white-tailed deer, bluebonnet, desert bighorn sheep, rivers and several others.
You can order your plates online and the cost will be prorated for drivers who have already renewed their vehicle’s registration. Full details on how to order custom plates can be found here.
“TPWD uses conservation license plate funds to conduct research and management activities benefitting the state’s most at-risk species,” Davis said.
Plates can be purchased for vehicles, RVs/travel trailers, trailers and motorcycles.
The public was invited to vote for their favorite design for the new monarch butterfly license plate last September and the winning design is on the new plate.